Improvement in knives and forks



liaite guette' Letters Patent No. 97,152, dated November 23, 1869.

IMPROVEMENTgIN KNIVES AND FORKS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of'lthe carrie.

To all whom it may concern:

section, to show the socket and one' of the jaws of t the clamp.

Figure 2 is an end view.v

Similar letters indicate corresponding parts.

lhis invention consists in the combination, with a knit'e or fork, of aclamp for seizing and withdrawing skewers from pieces or joints of'meat.

Pieces 4of meat, when prepared for table, are usually dressed. and heldcoinpactly, and in symmetrical shape, by means of wooden skewers, whichit is desirable to remove when the meat is to be carved.

My 'invention enables the cai-ver to remove the skewers with facility.Y

-In the present illustration of my invention, I havel shown the clampset in the end of the handle of a table-knife, but it can be placed Vinthe end ot' a fork, and in practice it will only bey necessary to place`the clamp in the handle oi' carving-knives and forks.

The clamp,.whichl have here shown, is only oneY of many forms which maybe used in carrying out myl invention.

I form in the handle, at its end or elsewhere, a socket, A, to receivethe end ofthe skewer.

ln the sides of this socket are two clamps or jaws, B B,Vwhich arearranged to swing in the socket upon. pivots, C C, placed on oppositesides of the month of vthe socket.

Twolsides of the socket are open, and in these openings the clamps B Bare, in this example, arranged' so that they can be moved or swunginward-` and ontward, to clamp and to release the skewer.

The inner faces of the clamps, near the bottom of the socket, are madewith projecting edges -or teeth, D D, which grasp the skewer when it isinserted into the socket, and. theclamps are pressed together.

The clamps are operated by means ot" arms, E E, which extend downwardoutside ot` the socket, along the edges ofthe handle, so as to enableone to draw the clamps outward, away from each other, to release theskewer, or to push them together to seize it, said arms answering thepurpose of iinger-pieces for operating the clamps.` v y f The clamps arenot long .enough to reach the bottom of the-socket, but a space is leftbetween the ends of the clamps, where the teeth D .D are placed, andthebottom of the socket, so that the end ot' the skewer can pass the clampsand enter such space, when the sides of the skewer will he inproperposit-ion to beseized by the clamps.

. The swing of the clamps outward is limited by stops, F F, formed atthe end of the handle, above the pivots C C, and I have placed plus orstuds, G G, on the sides lof the clamps, on their outer ends, beyond thepivot-joints, which pins strike against the stops F, and the furthermovement ot' the clamps in that direct-ion is arrested. In the oppositedirection their movement is arrested by the contact of thel arms E withthe sides ofthe handle.

I do not confine myself to this construction and arrangement of clamps,but I claim the combination, with a knife or fork, of any clamp forscizingand with' drawing skewcrs'from meat.4 v

rlhe clamp can be made in various forms as, `for instance, it can beformed with onlyl one movable jaw, and a fixed jaw can be formed in thesocket A, for

the. movable -jaw to operate against, in which case one side ofthesocket can be left solid; or it can be made so that the clamp shallwork'antomatically when a skewer isinserted in thesocket, the jaw orjaws `of the clamp being arranged with a spring or springs, to

-push them constantly inward, so as to grasp with their teeth any objectthat forces them apart, in which case, the arms E, or some equivalentdevice, are necessary to open the clamp, to release the skewer after 'ithas 'been withdrawn from the meat.

The clamp can be placedin any part of the handle, or at the heel of theknife-blade, as may be desired by the maker.

`What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, with a lknife or fork, of a skewerclamp, substantiallyas set forth and described.

` J AMES BALL. Witnesses:

W. HAUFF, y J. VANVSANTVOORD. 4

